The progress of the Normans was henceforth unimpeded by organized resistance. Trapani, Taormina, Syracuse, were carried by storm. Castrogiovanni was surrendered by its governor, who apostatized to the Christian faith. In 1091 the cities of Butera and Noto, the last possessions of the Moslems in the island, were transferred by peaceful negotiation to the Normans, who now became the masters of Sicily. Coincident with the extensive territorial acquisitions resulting from the conquest, the feudal system was instituted, and fiefs were bestowed on those officers of the invading army whose services merited such a recompense and whose fidelity could be depended upon by the lords of the house of De Hauteville who assumed the suzerainty. The Moors, assured of the possession of their rights, passed quietly from anarchy and riot to the restraints and subordination of feudal dependence. With greater facility than would have been conjectured from their customs and antecedents, they adapted themselves to the unfamiliar conditions by which they were surrounded. As had been the case with the Greeks, they intermarried with their conquerors. They served with gallantry and distinction in the Norman armies. Their mercenaries, under the leadership of Christian nobles, were regarded with greater dread than when, under their own commanders, they had menaced the existence of the Papacy and the security of Rome. In many ways their superior civilization made its influence felt in the life and habits of the semi-barbarians of the West. The manners of the latter became more polished, their intercourse with equals less offensively rude, their treatment of inferiors less tyrannical and cruel. The Arab physician, who, with the Jew, monopolized the medical learning of his time, enjoyed the confidence and respect of the Norman princes. The Arab statesman and financier both stood high in their favor, and received the most substantial and flattering marks of their esteem. The luxurious customs of the Moors--permitted by their creed but forbidden by the strict morality of Christian discipline--commended themselves with peculiar zest to the lax principles and unrestrained passions of the Norman chivalry. The latter practised polygamy upon a scale fully as extensive as that of their infidel predecessors, established harems, and maintained troops of eunuchs. Beautiful concubines, arrayed, some in Christian, others in Moorish garb, and attended by trains of female slaves whose charms rivalled those of their mistresses, sauntered daily through the delightful promenades of Syracuse and Palermo. In vain the anathemas of the Holy See were launched against the nominal champions of the Faith who, with Oriental sensuality and magnificence, held their courts in the Sicilian capitals. The corruption of the Vatican was too familiar to all who had served in the campaigns of Italy for the denunciation of the Pope to arouse any other feelings than those of ridicule and contempt.